So I’ve procrastinated without really meaning too. Shortly after my mom’s trip in April we visited Matthew’s family in Indiana. It was a week-long visit that allowed us to spend time with his parents, grandparents, Sara and Katie, and our dear friends the Peyton’s.
One of our highlights was finally meeting McKinley (the Peyton’s little one) and it was very much worth the wait. After spending the day with McKinley downtown we went on a double date to broad ripple and enjoyed some time at Crackers – the comedy club. For the most part, we spent our time relaxing around and it was a nice break from the morbidly warm weather in South Florida. Matt’s only disappointment was that the whole family couldn’t be together and we really missed seeing Daniel, Laura and the boys.
Luckily we did get to spend time with Matt’s grandparents who we had sorely been missing. We had planned to take a trip to French Lick but with the flooding in the southern part of the state… alas we were unable to. It was quite a dramatic build up for a silly adventure. We literally had been watching the news and weather like hawks all week. A couple days before we got a call the Grandma had a serious fall and would not be able to make (missionaries had stopped by the house and after Grandma chatted with them, she noticed something by the front porch that wasn’t right – she went to take care of it and slipped bruising her face and scraping her hands and wrist). We were really worried but they insisted we still come by to spend the day. Katie and Ross also came by and While everyone took their afternoon nap, Katie and I chose to hunt for mushrooms in the yard… we found three different kinds… sadly none were the expensive, edible species we were looking for L We did and they told us they still wanted to make the trip to French Lick the next day. Matt, Sara, and I spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa’s and woke up the next morning early, ready to go. On the way Grandpa gave us a little money and started us all off with a lottery ticket for luck. As we were driving, we started to see evidence of the flooding we’d heard about. The further south we went, the worse it got. At one point we were driving on a two-lane road and saw water creeping up on the sides so that it felt like we were driving to the Florida Keys. We were within 5 miles of French Lick when the swiftly moving, brown flood waters rising to the tree tops that covered an entire High School’s football field, community park, and a few homes was a risk we just couldn’t take (even in Grandpa’s new car). It was so bad we didn’t even stop to take pictures – sorry! On our drive back the two-lane road I told you about had been half covered (the way we had come!) and we were just lucky enough to make it out before it covered up… though the water was already inching on the escape route. We had a couple of detours from the flooding but safely made it back to Martinsville.
While down there, we took a campus tour of IU and it was awesome! I loved the collegiate feel and the fact that I saw deer running from the steps of the student union right through main campus – it was very picturesque and we had a wonderful tour guide. I met up with a fellow member of my Master’s program cohort, Donyelle, who is taking the courses online and worked at IU. She showed us around campus and we saw the wicked sweet Reshalls, student life, and ate some delicious food! Matt reaffirmed that he made the right choice by going to USU over IU since the size of the campus was a bit overwhelming (and the fact that he met me at USU).
Overall, we’re struggling to make it through this summer – The heat here is painful! It’s in the high 90’s with humidity and feels even more painful than my dry Utah summers. It’s an adjustment. We’ve also been working through our summer course load and it’s been the most difficult course load yet! On the bright side, Matt’s already seeing clients and enjoying the practice. One more month and we’re hoping for a small break before we get swamped with work... oh the joys of grad school!
